


And So We Drown Together

by Terion



Series: An Arrangement of Love Struck Fools [1]
Category: Vampyr (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Guard of Priwen - Freeform, M/M, Multi, NSFW, Original Character(s), Plot With Porn, Porn With Plot, Post-Canon, Sex All Around - Everyone in the Relationship Gets Something, Smut, The Sewer Skals, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 20:06:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15893202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terion/pseuds/Terion
Summary: Thirty years after the defeat of the Red Queen, Geoffrey McCullum is handing off the reins of the Guard of Priwen to Mercy Hawk. The new blood isn't aware of their leader being a vampire and he's not inclined to risk having a repeat of the Brotherhood for a second time (now that he knows the truth of their founding). But what hunt is there for the hunter after he's handed off the organization he helped mold for a new century?Perhaps he'll finally track down the leech that made him what he is. He's forgiven him (mostly), after all. What other surprises might wait for him when he finds him?





	1. A Farewell to the Guard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the vampyr discord server :)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=the+vampyr+discord+server+%3A%29).



> This is my gift to all the members of the Vampyr Discord server. Here you are, my darlings. I have finally completed it.
> 
>  _Enjoy_.
> 
> Chapters 1-3 of this fic are _relatively_ clean. Language and maybe some use of body parts/sexual language.
> 
> Chapters 4 & 5 are _**very** NSFW_.

“You’re fucking serious? You're really going to leave the Guard and put me in charge?”

“Have I ever lied to you, Hawk?” Geoffrey asked without looking up from the report he was signing off on from one of the Docks teams. He then glanced up at her where she was leaning on his desk, both hands braced on the edge, and stated, “You’ve got thirty-two years in the fight and you’ve got the respect of the majority of the Guard. Whereas I’ve got too much bloody suspicion on me now.”

She snorted at that and stated in a joking tone, “Downsides of being a bloodsucking leech, sir.”

He narrowed his eyes at her in a glare and Hawk just grinned at him brightly, that lopsided fucking grin that came out when she was at her most relaxed. “I may _look_ younger than you now, lass, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna start taking your shit.”

“Yet you’ve always taken my shit in stride since I joined up, sir.”

“I may rethink handing over the reins to a shit talker.”

Hawk laughed outright at that. “Who _else_ is gonna keep this lot in line?”

Geoffrey frowned, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. “Might just make Ambrose it instead,” he stated airily.

“Ambrose would fucking beat you to death in your sleep with his shovel if he even knew you _jokingly_ suggested it,” she pointed out matter-of-factly. He just sighed in response but couldn’t argue that point since even with Ambrose pushing nearly sixty nowadays, the man was still a fierce fighter if he needed to be. Ambrose Mallory was also the best medic that Priwen had now since a good chunk of those who’d survived the war hadn't come back to the Guard. The man himself hadn't been able to go back to war given his wound from the one where they had first met, but he had treated every man who  _had_ come back with new stories and scars and shadows behind their eyes. Which had brought back all those old shadows in the older man's eyes as he remembered a different war fought by different young men.

Those shadows were the sort of thing that made Geoffrey wish he could have joined in the effort. He'd itched to join up, to fight a new fight, but he couldn't take the risk as a soldier on the field. _Killing_ vampires was one thing as a soldier. _Being_ a vampire as a soldier was another thing entirely. The risk of exposure, of having to serve in the daylight, had been too much. All he could've done was work from the sidelines, from the shadows, and there was too much risk in that. Even with thirty years of being a leech under his belt, he still struggled sometimes with the hunger when leeches or feral Skals were scarce in the city. He remembered well enough about how much blood had been spilled in the Great War and he wasn't entirely certain he could resist the hunger all the time. Even if his tastes ran towards the blood of his own now, blood was _blood_ and he'd had men volunteer a bottle or two over the years when hunts were scarce. Only his own stubborn willpower kept him from hunting humans.

Plus, Hawk had threatened to beat him into unconsciousness the first time he'd floated the idea of joining the war effort when members of the Guard were informing him they were leaving to join up.

“So,” he asked after a long moment, “you going to take the reins from me or not, Hawk? It's you or Baker to be perfectly honest and he's got a bit too much zeal for my tastes to head the Guard. Everyone else would either kill me like Ambrose or refuse.”

“Baker’d run us into the ground hunting leeches that aren't there,” she stated sharply. “That paranoia of his works to keep him and his men on their toes in the field but in full command? He'd have all of Priwen in the same state. We’d fucking combust in six months at the least.”

Geoffrey smiled at that and lifted a finger to point it at her. “And the fact that you know all that is why _you're_ my choice, lass.”

Hawk rolled her eyes then straightened up, moving to half sit on the edge of the desk and leaned over towards him with one hand resting on the signed reports. “Then as the future leader of Priwen,” she stated in a serious tone, “I need to know what your plans are for after you leave.”

“Worried I'm debating turning on the Guard?”

“ _Never_ , sir, but _always cover all your bases_ is one of the first things you taught me.” Her serious demeanor then cracked as her mouth twitched into a smile. “Besides how to pretend I had a cock while walking and hide that I didn't piss standing up. Even if I didn't really need to know either.”

Geoffrey snorted at that and commented back, “You had more balls at fifteen than most of the actual boys who came in. All you were lacking was the swagger.” He then frowned and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk as he worked over how exactly to respond. With the truth? The truth that there had been a wanderlust in him for the past five years? That he yearned for new sights and sounds beyond London for the first time in his life?

That a part of him _ached_ without the presence of the leech doctor?

No, not the last. Hawk knew he'd mostly forgiven Reid for turning him once he had remembered the events that night at Pembroke...but she didn't know what he'd felt from the man over the years. All of the worry and love that came through that tentative bond between Maker and Progeny. For a long time he had hated it, those emotions, before he had grown used to them. One thing he had always known was that both were _for him_ because of that tentative touch of Reid’s presence in his head before it had disappeared.

He still wasn't entirely certain how he felt about the leech’s feelings for him. It wasn't like Geoffrey hadn't had his share of sexual encounters with either sex in his life but they'd always been one-offs. Just enough to burn the physical urge out until the next time it became an unbearable itch. But the only loves in his life had always been the Guard and its men and women. They were _his family_.

And he was _leaving_ them.

Coughing, he looked up at her and smirked as he asked, “What do _you_ think my plans are, future Leader of Priwen? It's your job to know the mind of leeches like me. So what do you think?”

Hawk threw back her head at that and laughed boisterously, grinning once she was done. Then she leaned in and whispered in his ear, “I assumed, _sir_ , that you were going to be smart and finally give chase after your man.”

“My _what_?” Geoffrey snapped, jerking away from her in surprise at her phrasing as well as her guessing accurately where he was debating going. Hawk just smirked and shook her head as she slid off the desk.

“Christ, you gents are fucking useless at emotions. I had to beat ole Evans over the head back in the day that Captain Richards had been eying him after he got over you.” Turning around, she planted her hands on the desk and stated, “I'm not blind, sir, and I've read my shit same as anyone in the Guard. Maker/Progeny bond is a hell of a thing and I've spent thirty two years hounding the road behind you. I _know_ when you sense something from him and, you may not realize it, but you get this look in your eye.”

Glaring at her now, he growled, “What _kind_ of look?”

“The sort I saw a lot in Captain Richards when he was chasing you. Caught it in Eld too when he was first pursuing me when he thought I wasn’t fucking looking.”

Scowling, he began, “I do _not_ …” but Hawk cut him off with a raised finger.

“Who between us has actually had a romantic relationship in their life?” she asked with an arched eyebrow.

Geoffrey growled quite literally then, the sound rumbling darkly in his chest, but he couldn’t argue the point no matter how he might want to. She had been in her relationship with Eldridge Rowe for almost as long as he’d been a vampire now. Hawk certainly didn’t know all of the details of how that portion of his life had gone but she knew since he’d been changed that he had not done anything with anyone. Instead as the growl tapered off, he hissed, “I do _not_ have a desire for that leech, Mercy.”

Not one he would admit _out loud_ anyway.

She cast him a disbelieving look in return and when he began to growl again, Hawk finally leaned back and held up both hands in front of her in a gesture of submission. “Fine, fine, you don’t, sir,” she said as she slid off the desk and headed towards his office door. Pausing there, she rested her hands against the door itself before she gripped the doorknob and glanced back over her shoulder, her expression fond and sad at the same time.

“You can’t live all the rest of your years alone, Da,” she intoned softly, her voice deliberately pitched low to keep it from carrying far but he could hear her perfectly. “I won’t be around forever and we both know that eventually the Guard’s not going to be able to exist like it has been. The world’s fucking changing again. And you’re...you’re gonna be _here_ , as good as frozen in time.”

“Hawk,” he started quietly because she hadn’t called him that in _at least_ two decades and she so rarely meant it seriously even then before letting his voice trail off when she shook her head suddenly.

Taking in a slow, shaking breath, Hawk said a little more strongly, “I know you aren’t fond of emotions but I _worry_ about you out there alone, without any of us at your back. So _don’t_...don’t shove away what might be a chance at some kind of happiness without actually looking at it first. I know you’re a right stubborn fucking git but...try it with Reid...for me?”

Geoffrey sat up straighter as he realized there were _tears_ in her eyes and quickly stood up, making his way over to her. He started to reach out towards her but fuck if he knew what to do with his hands around a crying woman, let alone a _crying Mercy Hawk_ . “Hawk,” he asked softly as he let his hands fall back to his sides, feeling somewhat useless, “do you want me _not_ to go?” He wasn't going to touch her plea. Not now.

“You have to,” she replied, shaking her head as she lifted a hand to roughly scrub it across her eyes. “I’ve heard the fucking newbies talking. They’re suspicious as anything and some are still angry that they think you avoided service in the last war when you could have fought and I know you don’t want to go through another round of who’s going to shoot you first when they find out the truth. If we had enough of the old crew still...fuck, I’d fight with you until I couldn’t carry a blade anymore, sir.”

“We deal with the hand we’re dealt, Hawk,” he said gently.

“Doesn’t make it not a shit fucking hand.”

Geoffrey chuckled at that and shook his head, replying, “No, no, it doesn’t.” He then frowned and impulsively stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her in an impromptu hug. Hawk went stiff for a moment then all the air seemed to go out of her in a little _huff_ of breath and she locked her arms around his waist before sagging against him. Thanks to her height barely making it up to his shoulders, when she leaned her head forward it rested neatly against his chest.

He normally wasn’t one for hugs or emotional gestures - the closest he usually got was a clasp on the shoulder of one of his men for a job well done - but Hawk was the one exception to the rule. Neither of them had gone looking for it when she had dressed as a boy to sign up with the Guard but he’d respected what he thought was her choice and let it lie. She became the young man named only Hawk and Hawk eventually looked at him as a father figure, much like how he had once looked at Carl. It wasn’t until a few years later that he came to a similar conclusion about Hawk, that she was more than just a member of the Guard. She wasn’t just family by being of Priwen, she was _his_ family as much as his own parents or Ian had been.

“I’ll be back,” he said softly after a long moment of just them standing like that, her leaning almost bonelessly again him.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, sir.”

Grimacing, Geoffrey sighed and dropped his head down to rest his chin against the crown of her head, amending himself to say, “I’ll _try_ then, Mercy.”

She let out a little disbelieving sounding snort and then quietly pleaded, “Don’t come back if it’s it’s just for my funeral. I don’t want you to mourn me like that, like some old woman who probably fell and broken her fucking neck.”

“Something so simple as a death? Not for my Hawk. Death fighting leeches or nothing.”

That brought a laugh out of her and then her arms squeezed tight around him and Mercy asked softly, “ _Please_ , Da.”

And he, soft hearted bastard for her that he was, grimaced against the pain in his own heart of thinking her dead, of a future when his hawk wouldn’t fly. Geoffrey nodded and tipped his chin to kiss her forehead and breathed, “I promise, lass.”

For _her_ , he’d keep that promise. No matter how much it hurt.


	2. A Search for Answers

Just over a week later, command of Priwen was fully in Hawk’s capable hands. She had Ambrose as her second-in-command and five of the longest serving Captains as the next step under them both. All men who had known her for years and knew just how capable she was, who Geoffrey trusted would support her. It helped too that Hawk had served as his second since Lynch, his former second, had gone to war and come back in a coffin.

He had lingered about in the command post for a few days, gathering personal items and going over the details of running things that he kept to himself with Hawk and Ambrose. They both picked it up right quick and amongst the sadness at leaving them, he was just plain _proud_. Priwen was in good hands with them, he believed that.

The rest of the week he had stalked the new patrols from the shadows, observing the new and old teams working their routes. He also watched how the teams reacted _to_ Hawk and he was proud to see that the vast majority followed her orders perfectly. The handful that bowed up to her learned all too quickly that just because they might have height or weight on her didn’t mean that they had an advantage.

If the men and women of the Guard had taught Mercy Hawk anything over the years, they had taught her how to fight _dirty_.

With Priwen in her capable hands he had little left in London...except figuring out a direction to go. He knew that Reid never returned to London as he had had every man on the lookout for the leech, back when he’d been _furious_ at his own situation. However, he was aware that there were others in the city who might have contact with the leech.

Which is why a week after giving up the reins of Priwen, he was striding into the home of the Sewer Skals.

Geoffrey glanced around as he entered, eyes automatically flicking around the area in an automatic assessment that had been too long ingrained into him to stop. The few Skals closest to the entrance he came through tensed up immediately upon seeing him and he sniffed before narrowing his eyes at them. He wasn't certain whether they were young and just automatically tensed up at the approach of a strange Ekon...or if they were older and were in the sewers ten years ago when he had come storming in looking for a kill. With their bandaged faces and almost all equally tattered clothes, there aren’t many Skals that he can tell apart.

“Welcome, young hunter.”

Well, beside the obvious ones.

Tipping his head back, Geoffrey looked up at Old Bridget standing above him on one of the wooden walkways that stretched across the open area they occupy. She looked exactly the same as she always did, clad in the remnants of long ago finery with a dark shawl pulled up over her head.

“Bridget,” he greeted in return, smiling thinly.

“And to what do we owe this unexpected pleasure of a visit from you, hunter?” she asked as she began walking towards one of the stairs that would lead her down to the main level that he was on. He followed her, grimacing as Skals _scattered_ before him, and now he was fairly certain that these had been there ten years previous. They had true fear in their eyes and not just the wary fear that most Skals that weren’t feral had.

Fear of _him_.

Shifting his attention away from the Skals, he focused in on her. It was far easier than watching the fear, which made him think back far too easily to when he had first told the Guard what had happened to him. The fear, the loathing....it had been brutal and terrible coming from them and _himself_ at the same time back then. And here, with the reminder that his Guard, that his _family_ , might have gone through that again so close at hand if he hadn’t stepped down, the fear _hurts_.

“Need to ask a few questions to you and your house guests,” he replied. When she just arched an eyebrow, Geoffrey growled in the back of his throat before adding, “I’m looking for Reid.”

There was silence for a long moment as she merely looks at him, her blue eyes not hard but...assessing. As if she could look right through him and see his every reason laid out before her. Then Bridget hummed softly, gesturing for him to follow as she turned and stepped back the way she came, heading back up into the upper levels of the Skals home.

“I’m afraid,” she began softly as they made their way towards the opposite end of the area, “that I myself cannot aid you, young hunter. I have received little contact myself from the young Ekon since he defeated the Disaster and what little I have has been merely asking after our situation.”

Bridget turned her head slightly and Geoffrey caught the hint of an amused smile as she added, “He often asked if we were being bothered by your Guard until I wrote in return that you had been in contact with me yourself. That you did such a thing quite surprised him.”

Snorting, he replied, “Don’t paint me like a fucking saint, Bridget. You know full well I’m not one.” He had never pretended that keeping his men out of the sewers was altruistic nor that they would stop killing them if they were spotted outside of the sewers. Skals were Skals to his men, feral or not, and Hawk was the only one left really who accepted otherwise since she had once been down here with him.

“Never a saint, hunter. What little gesture you could make was still appreciated.”

He grunted at that. “Not my gesture anymore. I handed off command of the Guard.”

 _That_ seemed to surprise her and she stopped, fully turning to face him with a curious look on her face. “You no longer lead them? Who, may I ask, does now?” And he knew why she asked, because she feared for her own, feared that their little arrangement might be over now.

“Hawk.”

That makes Bridget relax and she smiled, nodding her head. “Ah, your protege. A wise choice to make. I will have to reintroduce myself to her and congratulate her.” She then began moving again and he followed as she led him towards a single room that was back across the running water far below the scaffolding, one of the few areas with an actual door.

As they approached it, it opened and allowed the exit of Sean Hampton, the only actual man who could honestly be called a saint in the fucking whole of London. He was exactly as Bridget had been, no different from the last time he saw him. Still the same black clothes with the rosary hanging over it and the remnants of the common Skal pockmarks on his face, though his were healed enough that he could pass comfortably amongst people. When they got closer to him, as he stopped outside the door, Geoffrey could see that his eyes were more blue than they were they last time they met, although there is still a faint ring of sickly yellow at the edge. A reminder of the fact that he was once a Skal turned by the epidemic and now he’s something not Skal but not quite Ekon just like Bridget.

“Geoffrey McCullum, here to visit us again,” Sean greeted with a slight nod of his head. His eyes flicked over to Bridget, however, and Geoffrey could see the question in them. He knew because of why he was here the last time unannounced.

_Is he here to finally kill him? To kill us?_

“Our young hunter is not here as a member of the Guard,” Bridget stated simply. “He has left them and is now seeking information on where he can find our distant friend.”

“Doctor Reid?” Now Hampton did look at him suspiciously, eying him up and down. “I was under the impression that you and the Doctor were still at odds. Especially after the circumstances of your turning.”

Geoffrey’s lips thinned and he growled, “A man can change his opinions in thirty years.” He wasn’t going to tell this lot his fucking reasons. They were his and his alone and if someone didn’t guess them outright he wasn’t going to give them away. Maybe not even then.

His words, however, seemed to make Sean Hampton relax.

“A man _can_ change, yes, indeed he can. However, I fear neither I nor Bridget are capable of helping you find him. He gives so little detail of where he is at in his letters to us, speaking more of other matters. And his letters to us are never sent from his address, I believe.”

Hampton then tilted his head towards the door behind him and Geoffrey gritted his teeth because he should have fucking _known_ it would come to this.

“What you seek may lie with him,” Sean stated. “However, I will not let you enter without knowing you will stay your hand.”

“I’ve kept my claws out of the bastard for ten years after what he did,” Geoffrey snarled back. “At _Reid’s request_ . And I’ve let your lot handle him and not stuck my fucking nose into how you deal with his thirst. I can _keep_ my claws sheathed, Hampton, no matter how much I still think he should die for the carnage he caused.”

From behind him Bridget stated, “We will hold you to your word, _Nemrod_.” The way she said the word itself was cold but not judgmental. Merely an acknowledgment that she knew what he was by the terminology placed upon their shared kind by whoever had coined the term. He’d never used the term himself, preferring to think of himself as just a hunter still...even if how he hunted and killed his prey had changed.

Sean sighed and said, “He is not a bad man, Geoffrey. We have all felt the hunger, the _thirst_ , eating at our bones. Even yourself, I’m certain. Do you think he does not suffer for what he did, for the lives he took?”

Gritting his teeth, he glared at Hampton for a long moment. So many parts of him wanted to _hate_ Edgar Swansea for what he had done ten years prior, for the two doctors and the three patients that had ended up dead with their necks savaged. Another five had been wounded and the rest numb with shock and horror at what the administrator had done. And there was one part that was _fear_ . Turning on his men - turning on _Hawk_ \- had been one of his nightmares ever since he had awoken with the hunger in his belly and had his first taste of blood from Reid himself. He had always controlled himself, always was careful not to become too comfortable, to _remember_ that he was a _beast_ wearing human skin.

But...what if _he_ had been the one to fall instead?

“I just want to know where Reid is,” Geoffrey finally growled out between clenched teeth. “You have my word that the Stole bastard will still be alive after I’m gone.” He then turned his head so he could cast a glare between the both of them before he asked, “Does that satisfy you?”

“Well enough,” Bridget replied with a slight nod. “Go, young hunter.”

Not even acknowledging the permission with a response, Geoffrey turned and grasped the doorknob to shove the door open and step inside. As it closed behind him, he took a quick glance around the small room - a single open space with ramshackle walls filled by mostly a bed, a desk with a human skull occupying one corner atop a stack of books, and bookshelf stuffed full of a collection of medical books and stacks of papers - before he focused in on the sole occupant. Swansea was seated at the desk on the far side of the room and the man held up a single finger as he said, “Just a moment please. I wish to get this thought down.”

Slowly he shut the door behind him, narrowing his eyes as the strange comfortable feeling he’s always had around the man since they were both turned comes back to him. It is so _foreign_ still to feel comfortable around the former Pembroke administrator, the sensation still setting him on edge like nothing else has in his years.

“Now, Sean, I thought you were leaving…” Swansea began as he turned in his chair and then what little color there was in his face drained away. “McCullum,” he breathed.

“Swansea,” Geoffrey replied in a clipped tone. “You look like shit.”

The other man looked half-starved, his skin paler than ever, almost to the point of translucence in spots. There were deep, dark circles underneath his pale blue eyes and the veins in his face stood out starkly, all too obvious in the intensity of their color against the rest of him. Swansea’s brown hair was slightly messier than it was when he was in the public light but his clothes were on par with Hampton’s, that slightly shabby but neat appearance. What he noticed most was that the other man’s eyes weren’t blood red through the sclera around the blue iris like they were ten years ago. Proof enough that he’s kept from falling off the wagon again.

With a scoff, Swansea commented, “Ah, yes, thank you, McCullum. I was entirely unaware of my appearance.”

The sarcasm surprised him and Geoffrey arched an eyebrow before he narrowed his eyes. “I’m sure you were. Now how about you answer a question for me since apparently you’re the only one who can according to Hampton and Bridget.”

“Oh, a question is it? Ten years since you came charging in here after my head and you return for a simple question? I’m honestly surprised you haven’t tried to kill me since then, McCullum. Whatever happened to the woodsman who swore to eliminate all vampires?”

Bristling at the question, he replied in a growl, “He got fucking _turned_ .” Geoffrey then snapped his head towards the other man and spat, “And because Reid _fucking asked me not to_ , as if you didn’t know.”

“I...wh-what?”

“Oh, come off it, Swansea! I already know you have regular correspondence with him! He probably told you all about it.” He began slowly pacing across the room as he spoke, recalling the fury he had felt that night ten years ago after he’d discovered the massacre at Pembroke. When he had entered the area after tracking Swansea there, he had been all too ready to kill the man in the room with him now, perfectly willing to do it with his own claws. Bridget and Hampton had placed themselves between him and his prey but he had known that he could have swept through them with ease. He almost _had_ until Reid’s voice was there in his head, tired and hurting, asking softly, _Please, Geoffrey._ And he had done as asked...though he still isn’t entirely certain of all the reasons why.

Swansea just shook his head slowly and replied, “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about, McCullum. Jonathan has never written of anything about that night to me except that I should not let it convince me I am a monster because I fell to our shared addiction.”

Geoffrey halted in his tracks and turned to give a narrow-eyed stare at the former doctor. “Never?” he growled. “Not once?”

“I have never even physically heard him over all these years, not even on that dreadful night.” Shaking his head, the other man went on, “I don’t even catch very many stray thoughts from him as I used to. Emotions I pick up quite often but it is always connected to something quite specific.” Swansea then tilted his head slightly and shrugged before adding, “Or _someone_.”

He then stiff and still at the way Swansea said the last and spat, “What does that mean?”

The other man just sighed and shook his head before he stood up slowly, asking, “So what is your dire question that you must ask that only I can answer?”

“Where’s Reid?”

Geoffrey expected a lot of things nowadays but he didn’t expect Swansea to fucking _launch himself_ across the room with his fangs out and snarling at him. Unfortunately for the former doctor, he’s a leech that’s surviving off a very low amount of blood, his intake controlled by those around him, and Geoffrey was decidedly _not_. So instead of Swansea hitting him in the chest, he whipped his hands up and grabbed the other man’s wrists, using his momentum to keep his motion going and slam him into the door with a deep snarl.

Instinct told him to kill his attacker, to take them down swiftly and furiously...but for all Geoffrey may be a _beast_ , he isn’t a mindless one relying on instinct alone. Instead he just jerked Swansea’s arms up, causing the shorter man to yelp, and he snapped aloud, “He’s still alive! He’s fucking _fine_ ,” since he can still sense that Hampton and Bridget are outside the door. Then he narrowed his eyes on the other man’s snarling face and growled deep in his chest.

“I won’t let you kill him, McCullum!” his captive snarled angrily

Still growling, Geoffrey eyed the doctor for a long moment before he asked, “And what exactly would you do to fucking _stop me_ , Swansea? You’re as transparent as a fucking pane of glass and half-starving. I could bloody drain you right now and there wouldn’t be a thing you could do to stop me.”

He then released the man’s wrists and shadow-stepped across the room, growling after he got there, “But I didn’t kill you fucking ten years ago for Reid’s sake and I won’t do it now. He fucking has _feelings_ for you despite everything you did.”

“And since when did you care about Jonathan’s feelings, McCullum?” Swansea demanded, calmer now with a curious look on his face. He rubbed his hands over each of his wrists, which were slightly bruised from Geoffrey’s grip on them but the darkened skin was swiftly fading away. Then he frowned and asked quite seriously, “If you aren’t planning to kill him, then what _are_ you going to do?”

Geoffrey might feel strangely comfortable around Swansea - assumably due to their shared Maker, though he had never found any account similar when he’d gone looking through the Priwen archives - but he was never going to explain to _him_ about his back and forth emotions involving Reid. The only person he was going to ever talk about that with was the leech himself.

“I’m not going to _kill him_ and that’s all you need to know.”

The other man narrowed his eyes then he sighed, shoulders drooping, and nodded. “Very well,” he stated. Walking over to the bed, he sat down on it before leaning over to pull a small wooden box out from underneath that was nearly filled to the brim with opened envelopes and letters. Some were yellowed with age but there were crisp white ones at one end that showed much more recent correspondence. It was one of these that Swansea pulled out, removing the letter, and extending the envelope itself towards him after placing the box on the bed beside him.

As Geoffrey reached out to grab it, those blue eyes met his and Swansea said, “You _swear_ to me you won’t hurt him?”

Snorting, he replied, “Would you really believe me, Swansea?”

“Despite our differences, McCullum, you’ve almost always been a man of your word. So, yes, I will believe you.”

For a moment Geoffrey just stood there looking down at the man and then tugged a little harder at the envelope as he said, “On my life, Swansea. Killing Reid isn’t what I’m looking for.” Swansea released the letter then, eyes watching him with a keen sort of knowing stare that made him uncomfortable. Ignoring the stare, he looked down at the envelope and snorted softly.

Of course Reid would go to America. Well, it seemed he needed to find safe passage across the ocean.

“Thank you,” he said absently then as he tucked the envelope away inside his coat, already focused on thinking of what he could do since he would have to avoid the sun on the way. Booking a normal passage on a ship was probably out of the question, so he would have to get...creative. Just like old times trying to get members of the Guard to places.

As he moved towards the door to leave, Swansea called out quietly, “McCullum.”

Stopping with his hand on the knob of the door, Geoffrey turned slightly to look back at the other man. Swansea was still there on the bed, looking down at the box, his fingertips running almost sadly over the collection of letters within. “What, Swansea?” he asked.

The question had the former doctor turning to look at him instead of the box and somehow he appeared even more worn out now, the circles under his eyes somehow darker. There was something...melancholic...around him now, like he had come to accept a deep and dark sadness that pressed down on his shoulders. After a moment Swansea slowly drew in a breath before he softly said, “Take care of them.”

Geoffrey jerked back, surprised more at the _them_ than anything, and then snarled, “Swansea, what the hell exactly do you think I’m looking for him for?”

“Honestly?” Swansea replied. “I am not certain even you know what you’re looking for, McCullum. Yet I know what I have felt over the years from Jonathan and what I observed in him before he left the city. I think you know as well as I how often his thoughts have focused on someone within this very room and it has never been _myself_.”

He resisted an urge to flinch - to _run_ \- because, yes, he had felt all too many of those feelings over the years. To have _Swansea of all people_ also know them, to know the depth of Reid’s emotions? Swansea at least wasn’t privy to his _own_ emotions since the actual mental connection of vampires only went between Maker and Progeny and not between the Progeny themselves.

But Geoffrey did not flinch nor run and merely tilted his chin a little higher, growling, “Speak plainly or don’t speak at all, Swansea. I hate this fucking dancing around.”

“He _loves you_ ,” Swansea snapped, his voice harsh and... _jealous_ ? Was that really _jealousy_? “I cannot comprehend why and I have tried for many years. And I envied you for it, that you could earn that part of him while trying to _kill_ him and _I_...well.” With his voice trailing off, the man’s shoulders slumped, shaking his head, and went on mournfully, “I don’t know why you are seeking him out now, Geoffrey, but don’t...I only ask that you do not break his heart.”

Hawk’s words came back to him abruptly - _I know you’re a right stubborn fucking git but...try it with Reid...for me?_ \- and Geoffrey gritted his teeth as he glared at the former doctor.

“I will go where I choose, Swansea,” he snapped, “as I have always done.”

With that he jerked the door open and stormed out, stalking past Hampton and Bridget to head towards out of the many exits that would lead him out of the sewers. He had quite a few plans to make.

And some hard thinking to do.


	3. What Are the Wants of a Heart?

The address that the envelope lead him to is one of those homes that’s called a _brownstone_ , only the stone on the outside of this one was a slightly darker and richer color than those of its neighboring partners. There were some sort of accents on the outside of it that are in a different color but even his eyesight in the dark wasn’t wasn’t quite good enough to pick up the exact difference. It also didn't help that the curtains in two of the tall windows facing the street were drawn back and the light from within was fucking with his eyesight.

 _Or is it_ , whispered a little voice that sounded suspiciously like Hawk, _that you can see him?_

Growling Geoffrey jerked his head away, tearing his eyes from where he can see Reid inside, standing in the middle of whatever room is on the other side of those windows. The doctor was gesticulating wildly, a broad smile lighting up his pale features as he spoke to someone else in the room that couldn't be seen from the window. And his heart _wants_ and _doesn’t want_.

He wants to charge up those steps and bang on the door, to demand entry in...yet he also wants to run back to England or elsewhere and just…

Just what?

Flee, like a coward?

 _Run_ from the fact that there might, in fact, be something to this? He's _forgiven_ Reid, hasn't he? Forgiven him long ago for saving his life and damning him in one move?

_You can’t live all the rest of your years alone, Da._

Gritting his teeth, he stared up at the front door for a long, drawn out moment then glanced towards the window again. The leech was still animatedly talking and then, as he watched, he reached down to whoever he was speaking to and pulled them to standing. _She_ was obviously a vampire herself, tall and thin, with red hair that was currently hanging loosely down her back in long curls. Reid laughed and kissed her before drawing her into an abrupt set of dancing steps, her hands clasped within his own.

She smiled, bright and happy, as she spun with him and for a moment Geoffrey felt part of his heart _break._ This is surely why Swansea said _them_.

Then he feels an ache, a _loss_ , that isn’t _his_ and looks again.

There’s a crack in Reid’s smile and the lady seemed to notice it, bringing their dance to a stop and lifting her hands to cup his face between them. She kissed him this time, just a brief peck on the lips, and then leaned against him, her head resting against his shoulder. And Reid just bowed his head slightly as he wrapped his arms around her and looks _lost._

 _Will I never know if he forgave me?_ is the thought that rings through Geoffrey's head and _it's not his._

He doesn’t even check the street for anyone being on it. No, Geoffrey merely shadow-steps from the sidewalk to the door and he’s knocking on it before he can stop himself. There’s a moment of blind panic immediately after, of sheer _fear_ , and a tiny voice that’s a remnant of an all too human animal fear screams _RUN._

But…

Christ, he’s so _tired_ of running.

Reid looks stunned for a moment when he opens the door of the house, his jaw dropped open as he breathed out, “ _Geoffrey_ ,” and then that stiff, proper demeanor takes over. Geoffrey, however, is the man’s Progeny and apparently Reid has gotten somehow  _worse_ at shielding his mind from him this close. Because the amount of sheer emotion he can feel makes his knees want to buckle under the weight of it.

It's a garbled mix of nonsense mostly, a jumble of feelings and words, yet there are threads that are far too readable. There's an old sick feeling of guilt underneath everything, full of flashes of Geoffrey’s bloodied features, the sound of his heartbeat fading, and Reid’s frantic _Don't die, please, don't die_. Another thread is afire with _lust_ and _want_ and _need_ and he can't look too hard at that one without his own cock stirring to attention in response. There's one that's love, pure love mixed with giddy joy, and he draws back from that one with a little fear because he doesn't feel like its his even though the whole of it seems to be focused on him.

And then there's the _fear_. Its tiny, a middling little thing lurking behind the guilt but he feels it. Geoffrey feels it because its fear _of him_ and _for him_ and all of the impressions around it are mixed with rage and tears and claws.

Some small part of Reid fears he's come to kill him and he'll fight, oh the man _will fight_ to protect what he's built...but if he wins, Reid will live with the guilt forever.

Guilt because once again he killed someone he lov-

Geoffrey jerked himself away from the emotion with a gasp, not wanting to see further, but he knew. _He knew_.

Shit, he had known since he remembered dying but hadn't accepted it was _love_ , not fully. Not even when Swansea had stated it directly. Yet here, standing in front of Reid, with everything the man felt _right there_? He can't ignore that.

Somehow through all of that he still managed to say just, “Reid.”

“You...how did you find us?”

Shrugging slightly, he replied casually, “Asked around.”

Reid looked slightly suspicious of the answer and then his expression shifted to something hopeful as he asked, “Do you want to come inside? If you’ve come straight from England, that’s quite the trip.”

Grimacing, Geoffrey thought of watching them through the window and muttered, “Wouldn’t want to ruin your night, Reid. Might be best if I bugger off so you and the lady can be alone.” He doesn’t know _why_ the words come out when all he wants to do it say _yes_.

“Nonsense,” came _her_ voice then and he blinked past the leech to see her standing there behind him at the end of the entrance hall, a vague smile on her face and some kind of _knowing_ in her green eyes. _Green eyes? What’s a leech doing with green eyes?_ Then she stepped forward, lifting a hand to gently rest it on Reid’s shoulder, and said, “We have wondered for many years if the day would come that you would hunt us down.”

“I’m not here on a hunt. I left the Guard.”

“You _left_ the Guard?” Reid repeated, stunned.

Geoffrey managed to shrug casually even if his heart still ached at the reminder that those times are behind him now. “I left someone I trust in charge. She’ll do it right by me.”

“Then you...you’re here because…”

“Jonathan, my dear,” the woman interrupted then, “let us allow him inside before we begin interrogating him, perhaps?” She then moved forward and around the leech, stretching out a hand towards him. “Come, Geoffrey McCullum. I delight in seeing how much you have changed over these past years.”

At her words he stiffened and narrowed his eyes, saying, “You know me?”

“Of course. I was in London for quite some time before thirty years ago. My name is Lady Elisabeth Ashbury.”

The name rattled against something in his memory, some tiny detail he had picked up somewhere, but he wasn’t entirely certain of what that detail was. Geoffrey frowned for a moment then stepped forward, ignoring her hand and moving in over the threshold so the door could be shut behind him. He flicked his eyes up to Reid’s and then looked away before he said, “So…”

The leech started to open his mouth and then closed it, shaking his head sharply as he also turned his head away. Geoffrey could see him out of the corner of his eyes however and watched as the other man swallowed, his throat bobbing nervously, before he spoke. “I think I will make tea,” he said quickly. “Elisabeth, can you…”

“I have this, my love,” the redhead assured with a smile. She then moved around him, reaching out to touch Reid in the center of his chest. He tried not to watch them too hard as the man quickly lifted one hand to grasp hers, their joined hands resting over his undead heart before they released their grips on each other. As Reid disappeared, she turned back towards him and gestured for him to follow her, saying, “Come with me.”

Frowning, he glanced after the leech then did as asked, following her into the room that he had been looking into when he was outside. Halting in the doorway, Geoffrey watched her as she crossed to the curtains to close them before she gestured at one of the comfortable looking couches in the room, settling down upon one herself.

“Come now, my dear, I don’t bite.”

Her small _smirk_ says something different, something he doesn’t want to look too closely at yet, and he narrowed his eyes at her before he moved towards the couch placed cater-cornered to the one she is seated on. Pausing, he debated for a moment and then removed his coat, laying it over one end of the couch before he sat down. Once he did, Geoffrey glanced around the room nervously, assessing all of the entrances and exits, before he turned his attention to her. Elisabeth. Who was obviously waiting for him to speak first as she sat silently across from him with her hands folded neatly in her lap.

Coughing, he asked, “He’s making...tea? We can’t…”

“Drink it?” she interrupted with a smile. “Yes, I know, but we do so enjoy the smell, so it is sometimes relaxing to make a pot. Not to mention that you have thrown him quite off balance appearing so unexpectedly at our door.”

“Reid? Off balance?”

Elisabeth just tilted her head slightly at him and said, “I think you will find that there is quite a bit that will actually throw Jonathan off balance at times. Your presence itself…” She paused, sighing heavily, and then cast a heavy glance his direction before she continued. “He has always feared that you would never forgive him for what he did.”

Geoffrey grunted at that, recalling the thought he'd picked up outside, and idly rubbed his thumb against his knee as he rested his hands on them. He then licked his lips and muttered, “It took time.” Then he tilted his chin in the direction Reid had gone off in and asked, “So...you and him?”

She laughed at that, soft but light, and nodded. “Yes, for quite some time. It was...difficult...at first after the Disaster but these last few years have been better, especially since Jonathan has found a method to...mute...the taint in my blood that caused it.” When he turned to stare at her, Elisabeth frowned. “You were unaware?”

“Knew the Disaster had been a thing. Reid never mentioned you were involved...or the fucking _cause_.”

“ _Inadvertent_ cause. It was not an event of my making. It is quite the story and one of the reasons that we left England. Perhaps one day I will share the full details with you. But for now...we speak of other things.” She leaned forward slightly before saying, “Such as I am aware that you know the depth of his feelings for you. It is in your every move since you came through the door.”

Stiffening slightly, Geoffrey growled, “Do you have a _question_?”

Elisabeth sighed, shaking her head. “I am not here to begin a _war_ with you, Geoffrey McCullum,” she intoned firmly. “I wish to merely know your _intent_. Jonathan is a good man for all of his faults and I care very deeply for him. There is a piece of him, however, that belongs to you.”

A fact that he was _all too aware of_. Frowning, he asked, “What do you want me to do about it? Leave? Leave and stay away so you can attempt to finally make him fucking forget about me?” That thought wouldn’t have hurt too long ago, before he had made the decision to come here himself. Now...now it felt like it was tearing him apart to even suggest it.

She actually looked shocked at his words and quickly said, “Of course not. I would never do such a thing, my dear.” Elisabeth then slid forward, now sitting on the edge of the couch, and she leaned over to look him directly in the eyes. “We have spoken of a time when you might appear before us and there is but one question that accompanies it, not a dismissal. Jonathan and I have agreed that we would much rather have you within our bed or merely just our lives than without it.”

For a moment he was certain that he had not heard her correctly. His mouth was abruptly painfully dry and he blinked at her several times before he managed to breath, “What?”

“He cares for you, my dear, almost as deeply as he does myself. And for him I am willing to extend an invitation to you if you so wish.”

“To...to sleep with you?”

Elisabeth sighed in a mildly frustrated manner before saying gently, “To share our _lives_ , however long they may be, and all that that entails. So, yes, in part to sleep with us.”

“You have left the Guard, that which I know you held most precious,” she went on, “even if you have cast it into the hands of someone you trust. The question now is what is it that you're seeking for your future.”

He wanted to _run_ instead of answer. He wanted to _fight_ because fighting was easier than this.

But he had come _here_ for a reason...and Geoffrey McCullum was no _coward_. He wasn't leaving until he figured out the answers he'd come looking for.

Staring her in the eye, he started to open his mouth to answer when Reid entered the room. Instantly his attention shifted to the other man and he just barely registered her sitting back on the couch with a knowing smile on her face.

“Here we are,” Reid stated as he sat down the tray with the tea pot and its three cups with their accompanying saucers on the low table nestled between the couches. Like them, the set was a relic now, a shadow of a time long gone, still lingering like a ghost unable to let go. Geoffrey ground his teeth together at the thought because he wasn’t some fucking _tea pot_.

“Geoffrey?”

Reid’s voice suddenly tore through his thoughts and he jerked violently, blinking up at the man. The leech was still standing and frowning at him, tea cup in hand, before he moved to sit on the couch next to him. “Are you quite well?” the doctor asked as he sat the cup down on the table. “You look...decidedly peaked, which is not something I thought I could say of one of our kind.”

Geoffrey opened his mouth slightly but no sound came out. He then closed it, licking dry feeling lips, as Reid turned towards the only other occupant of the room.

“Elisabeth, have you ever _...mmph_!”

He lunged forward, reaching out to grab Reid’s face and pull him back in his direction. Geoffrey’s mouth crashed against his a moment later, their teeth making an audible clicking noise as they hit each other, but he didn't care. The man’s beard tickled his cheeks and chin but his mouth remain still underneath his own, still too stunned to react. Growling, Geoffrey pushed on his chest with one hand, putting all of his weight behind it, and Reid collapsed backwards onto the cushions of the couch with a surprised huff. The other man then finally moved as he leaned forward to stretch out across him, Reid's hands coming up to grasp at his sides.

“Geoffrey,” Reid gasped, finally seeming to grasp what was going on, “are you…”

Thanks to being slightly taller, Geoffrey could still reach the other man’s lips and kissed him roughly, cutting off whatever he was going to say. Reid grumbled something that wasn’t understandable and then his hands shifted, grasping at Geoffrey’s pants and tugging him closer as he growled into his mouth. The sound rumbled through his body since he was chest to chest with the other man and the pressure of being dragged forward had his cock stirring to attention. He growled in return as Reid’s mouth finally moved underneath his, bringing both hands in to grab a fistful each of the man’s shirt and _tug_.

Their teeth clicked together again from the sudden movement, causing Reid to grunt, and then a curl of amusement flickered through his mind, followed by a soft and mostly amused, _Impatient_. Geoffrey growled again then pulled away, breathing heavily as he let go of the other man’s shirt and moved his hands to the couch beneath them, pushing himself up to where there was space between them.

Reid’s eyes were dilated and his breathing more than a little heavier than it had been as he lay there for a moment. Then the man beneath him relaxed his grip on Geoffrey's pants and released one hand from them. He brought it up slowly between them, fingertips running across the expanse of Geoffrey's chest but never quite touching, until Reid laid his palm flat over his heart.

“I wasn't certain you would ever forgive me,” the man intoned softly. “Thirty years and I never felt anything from you. All I knew was what everyone else could tell me through what little they had heard.”

Blinking down at him, Geoffrey repeated, “Nothing?” How had Reid known he'd gone after Swansea then?

“Silence,” Reid confirmed. “Always Edgar but never you. Even when we met in the graveyard that night I couldn't but I wasn't overly worried with it then. It wasn't until years later when I started to reach out again that I discovered it but I was never sure if you even felt it.”

That answered how he'd known about Swansea.

Yet...thirty years.

 _Thirty years of silence_ and this man had held out _hope_.

He wasn't sure _how_ he'd cut off his Maker from his thoughts entirely but the fact that he had and that the stubborn fucking leech had still _wanted him_?

“Oh, I felt,” Geoffrey growled darkly, feeling pleased when Reid _shivered_ slightly. “I felt every _want_ , leech, every need.” He then scowled, looking away from the man beneath him. “I hated you for a long time. Hated what you made me. What you made my _life._ ”

He then continued before the other could speak, “And then I remembered. I remembered dying, choking on my own blood, and you begging me to live. That I couldn't die like that. I haven't heard anyone sound that scared for me since...in a long time.” Just thinking about his mother, about how she had screamed for Ian and him to _run_ , set him a little on edge even with so many years between now and then. “I finally realized then that you hadn't done it out of spite or hate, that it had been something...else. That what I had been feeling from you wasn't a ploy or a trick. It was _real_. It was real and I _wanted_ , Reid, but couldn't let myself give in.”

“Geoffrey…”

“I _ran_ from it,” Geoffrey interrupted. He then turned his head back to face Reid and shifted his weight to lean on one arm, bringing the other up to cover the hand on his chest. “But I'm sick and tired of running, Reid.”

Reid’s breathing hitched and his eyes flicked away, over to where Elisabeth still assumably seated on the other couch. Geoffrey noticed and whispered, “She already told me.”

“She...she did?” Reid then pushed himself up slightly on his elbow, nearly bringing their faces in line again. The man didn't move in to do anything, however, and just asked, “And you...what would be your answer, Geoffrey? If I asked you to stay with me, with us?”

“No guarantees,” he replied roughly because he didn't _know_. He knew he _wanted_ but...he had never stayed. Honestly Geoffrey wasn't certain if he could or even should since he had no idea how a relationship should work besides the physical. What Reid was asking for was far more than just physical. “No _promises_ , leech.”

Reid chuckled and now he closed in across the space between them, pressing his lips against Geoffrey's. It was a soft, simple kiss, barely there long enough to acknowledge the tickle of his beard before it was gone again. Immediately after, elated excitement and love filled his mind as the other man smiled.

“A chance was all I ever wanted, Geoffrey.”

Scoffing, Geoffrey said, “Thirty years _late_.”

Reid chuckled, shrugging slightly, and replied, “It was never a guarantee. I could have lived even if you had never shown up.”

It was only a bit of a lie. He knew the man would have been haunted by it.

Reid then pushed against his chest and Geoffrey leaned back until he was sitting upright again, frowning at the small smile on the leech’s face. “What?” he asked as the other sat up, before Reid leaned forward and kissed him again. This one was firmer than the other, full of purpose and _want_ , and he could feel his pants tightening at the crotch.

The hazel-blue eyes of the man in front of him were bright as he replied, “I want…” He then trailed off, glancing towards Elisabeth, and Geoffrey followed his gaze to find her sitting serenely on the other couch with a cup of tea in her hands. She merely smiled at them, her eyes glittering with amusement as if the two of them had not just moments before been practically atop each other, and nodded slightly at Reid.

“I’ve told you my thoughts on this, my love,” she said softly. “But if you wish it, you must ask.”

“Ask _what_?” Geoffrey asked. When Elisabeth just smiled again and lifted her cup to her nose, he turned to look at Reid, who was quite pointedly not looking at him with an embarrassed flush to his cheeks. He started to open his mouth, to _demand_ an answer, but then remembered something she had said.

_Not to mention that you have thrown him quite off balance appearing so unexpectedly at our door._

Instead of demanding, he reached out and laid his hand over Reid’s where it rested on the couch cushion and growled softly, “You want _what_ , Reid?” He might have no experience with relationships or how to stay in them or how all of _this_ will work between them....but he _still knows_ how to work his way into bed with someone. And everything Geoffrey was picking up from his Maker - _because Reid is apparently utter shit at hiding his fucking emotions_ \- said that that was what he wanted. “Tell me, Reid.”

The other man drew in a breath in a long hiss and then his eyes darted up to Geoffrey’s face. As he watched Reid’s eyes dilated and then the man was lunging forward, both hands coming up to grasp his face as he dove in for a kiss. _This_ one was all sudden, savage violence as abruptly there were fangs present in his Maker’s mouth and Geoffrey felt one snag at his lip enough to draw blood as he returned the gesture, cupping his hands at the back of the other man’s neck. He growled and returned the kiss with equal roughness, feeling his own fangs descend in response to the scent and taste of blood in his mouth. The taste and the fury of the kiss kicked off a sensation he had never experienced in thirty years of being a vampire and that was that he was suddenly and painfully _hard_.

Reid pulled away then, panting openly for a moment before he growled in a dark, rumbling tone, “ _You. You with_ **_me_** _. With_ **_us_** _._ ”

“Right now, leech?” Geoffrey pressed, grinning before sucking at the blood from his cut lip. He watched the way the other man’s eyes focused in on the motion and made an idle mental note that blood could definitely be a factor in things. Thankfully he had long ago lost any lingering disgust at blood decades ago when he’d come to terms with the fact that this was his life.

There was barely a moment’s pause between his question and a response as Reid hissed, “Yes.” Reid then pulled away and Geoffrey let him go, releasing his grip on the other man’s neck only to have one of his hands grasped before he could let them both fall. The other man pulled him to his feet with little effort and then turned towards Elisabeth, extending his other hand towards her. “My love.”

She sat her cup aside on the tray and rose, all elegant grace in motion as she stepped forward to settle her hand in his. Then Elisabeth stretched out her other hand towards him and Geoffrey blinked at her before he reached out to offer his hand. She smiled as she placed her hand in his and then stepped forward to stand between them, her eyes looking between them, before she moved to kiss first Reid on the cheek and then turned to him to do the same. He was so stunned by the gesture that he didn’t even jerk away.

“Come, my dears,” she said then. “Let us not waste any more time, shall we?”

“No more,” Reid echoed and Geoffrey looked between the two of them as the other man’s love and affection echoed through his mind. Then he chuckled and nodded several times.

“No more,” he repeated and followed as Elisabeth tugged at their hands, leading them through the house.


	4. And So We Drown Together In Each Other

Geoffrey registered entering the bedroom in the house but there was little else that he noticed amidst the intense, screaming pressure in his trousers and the fucking  _hands_. He wasn't even certain how they got up the _stairs_ since Reid had suddenly pressed up against his back not even a few steps up, beard tickling him as the man just _breathed_ up the back of his neck. An instant later the man was gone, tugging at Elisabeth’s hand to drag her against him and kiss her.

From there it had become a tug-of-war between them, one dragging another away from the third and the process repeating over and over again. Like a twisted game of never ending musical chairs without a winner...or with three winners depending on how one looked at it. Hands had become fully involved by the time they had reached the second floor and it was a fucking _blessing_ that they were all tall.

He grunted as Reid’s hands grabbed at his hips, the man himself following soon after to practically plaster himself against his spine. Geoffrey growled in pleasure as he felt the distinct pressure of the man’s cock against his backside while the man himself bit at his shoulder through his shirt. Then he looked down at Elisabeth in front of him as she began undoing the buttons of his shirt even as he felt one of Reid’s hands wander up to the knot of his scarf.

“Ganging up on me,” Geoffrey growled as he brought his hands up to clasp them around her waist. “Trying to get me undressed first?”

Reid chuckled and suddenly his scarf came loose, swiftly tugged away from his throat and tossed away...somewhere. He didn’t exactly care after the man’s hand loosely curled around the base of his throat for a grip (as well as to hold down the collar of his shirt) and fangs scraped down the back of his neck, causing him to shudder slightly in return. For years he had considered his vampirism a _horror_ but now...now he might be gaining a new appreciation for some aspects of it.

“We haven't seen you,” Reid growled into his shoulder. He then nipped at the back of Geoffrey’s neck - sharp enough to hurt but not enough to bleed - and added, “I want to _see_ , Geoffrey.”

“ _Christ_ , Reid,” he gasped, spine arching in response to the nip and the wording. Apparently once he had gotten the man going, that nervousness of earlier was _gone_. Then he felt a tug at his waist and suddenly cool fingers were skating across his ribs, causing him to look back down at Elisabeth as he shuddered. She had finally opened all of the visible buttons of his shirt then had tugged it and his undershirt up out of his pants. The smile she flashed up at him was utterly coy and he realized he didn't have a clue how old of a leech she was.

That smile said to him that she had seen more than he and Reid’s measley thirty years as a blooddrinker.

Also...how _long_ had it been since he’d been touched this way by a hand not his own?

Geoffrey growled and tugged her against him, sliding one hand around to her back to hold her in place as the other began plucking at the buttons of the blouse she wore. “I shouldn’t be the only one close to not wearing a shirt,” he growled.

“That _is_ the eventual intent, my dear,” she replied with a sly smile. Her fingertips drifted across his ribs again, a series of shivers chasing after them as they moved downward to slowly begin unbuckling his belt. That smile became a touch _slyer_ and Geoffrey felt his mouth go suddenly and abruptly dry.

 _God_ , where had Reid found her? What kind of luck did he have?

His attention then got distracted as Reid’s hands suddenly slid up and over his shoulders, fingers curling underneath the edge of his shirt before drawing it slowly back off his shoulders. The other man seemed to be deliberately be dragging his fingers across Geoffrey’s skin, first with the pads of his fingertips just barely brushing and then with his knuckles, slowly running them down his arms alongside the almost frustrating drag of the shirt against skin. When it finally fell to the floor, Reid touched the backs of his hands, dragging his fingertips across the slightly scarred skin and then moved upward along his arm. Geoffrey let out a low growl, tipping his head back slightly and closed his eyes, enjoying the almost excruciatingly slow sensation of Reid’s fingers crossing over flesh and muscle.

The feeling of his belt being slid out of his trousers was the next immediate thing he registered before smaller hands unbuttoned them and let them hang open. They fell slightly further down his waist but were caught by his hips before they would fully fall away, revealing the shorts underneath. Then he felt cool fingers gripping the bottom of his undershirt before slowly pushing it up his chest. Reid's hands hit his shoulders at about the same time and then curved over and around to grab the rolled up fabric. Geoffrey tried to focus in on what Reid was doing, moving his arms to accommodate him in getting the fabric off over his head, but lost it when fingers began running slowly through the hairs covering his belly and an open mouthed kiss was pressed into his breastbone. He groaned and closed his eyes at the sensation, realizing how absolutely _fucked_ he was.

Thirty years with only his own touch was _nothing_ compared to this, to the torture of two sets of hands touching him and each setting off different sensations. And they hadn't even gotten anywhere near fully undressed yet.

He just barely registered Reid pulling away from him for a moment after getting his undershirt off and tried to focus in on Elisabeth. She seemed to be acquainting herself with his chest now, fingers and palms sliding up and down his sides before sifting them through the dark, wiry hairs. Though his hands were suddenly a little shaky from what he was quickly learning was intense over stimulation of his own body, Geoffrey fumbled at the belt on her high waisted pants and managed to get it off in two tries. She merely smiled up at him, tracing her fingertips across his collarbones, as he opened the button of her pants and tugged her blouse out of it. The soft, loose fabric caught at his fingers and he was almost impatient enough to just tear it off. He stilled the urge however and did his best to _focus_ , managing to unbutton it the rest of the way and slide it slowly off her shoulders, brushing his thumbs across her skin as he did. Underneath she was wearing only a loose knit top, not one of those fancy new bras that had come into fashion (which he only knew about because the women of the Guard had _no fucking shame_ and that included Hawk).

Geoffrey started to reach out and slide that fabric upwards but suddenly Reid was pressed back against him and he registered that it was _bare skin to bare skin_ and part of his brain short circuited. The other man chuckled and kissed his bare shoulder before he slid his arms around him, nimble doctor’s fingers chasing across the same places Elisabeth had been slowly exploring. “ _Geoffrey_ ,” the man growled right in his ear before kissing the back of his neck and nipping at the skin there again with his fangs.

He was _drowning_.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Geoffrey gasped, dropping his head back onto Reid’s shoulder. He wanted to turn around entirely and lean into the man, to taste and kiss his skin, perhaps even drive the leech back into the wall. Press him against it and _ravage him_. But right now all he was was drowning in the feel of skin against skin and the soft explorative touches that were like none of the lovers he’d had while living. They had always been quick trysts for the most part, in and out and back to the hunt with no thought to who's bed he had shared or the skin that he had kissed.

This... _this_...this was different.

He _wanted_. _Fuck_ , he wanted everything.

“Reid,” he growled, turning his head towards the leech. Geoffrey could smell him this close, some scent of fading cologne mixed with a hint of sharp medicinal that overpowered something dark and earthy, and he pressed his nose against the man’s throat to inhale deeply. Reid let out a pleased growl in response, the sound rumbling through them both, and Geoffrey spat, “Stop _teasing me_.”

 _Impatient_ , Reid scolded again mentally. Then Geoffrey felt Reid’s hand sliding around his side and the man made short work of the button of his shorts one handed. He arched his back, growling into Reid’s throat, as the other man’s fingers brushed through the thatch of hair there before wrapping around his cock and squeezing with gentle pressure. In response, Geoffrey snarled and bit at the other man’s neck, not intending to fully bite down at all. His fangs, however, did catch at skin just enough to draw blood and he immediately licked it away, purring contentedly at the taste. It was like the blood of almost any other leech but _better_.

Better because of the moment, the situation?

Better because Reid was his Maker?

Oh, who the _fuck_ cared? He had a half-naked man with his hand on his cock _and_ an almost half-naked woman in front of him.

“Very. Impatient,” Geoffrey growled as he reached up and curled his fingers into Reid’s hair, tugging him down into a rough kiss. The other man _purred_ into the kiss and the hand gripping his cock tightened slightly, just enough to relay a new torturous level of _pressure_ , before Reid’s hips jerked against his backside. When he finally let go, Reid’s eyes were dilated wide and Geoffrey let the man pant quietly for a moment before he snarled, “ _Enough talk_.”

“We haven’t been talking _at all_ really,” Reid replied with a chuckle. He then began slowly moving his occupied hand back and forth in a slow, pumping motion, causing Geoffrey to hitch his breath as his knees went a little weak. “But if you want to move on,” he continued, breath ghosting across Geoffrey’s ear, “we can find something...accommodating. Can’t we, my love?”

“I believe we can,” Elisabeth replied. Her hands then tugged at his trousers before she leaned forward against him and Geoffrey turned to look at her and realized with a start that somewhere along the way while he had been distracted by Reid, she had divested herself of her other clothes. She was, without a doubt, as elegant without clothes as she was with them on and he very much appreciated the view. Now when she leaned forward, the sensation with her was also _skin on skin_ but also a nervous excitement that seemed to very quietly exude from her as her suddenly bare breasts brushed against his chest. She ran the back of one hand along his arm before smiling coyly up at the both of them and stating, “You both are wearing far too many clothes, my dears.”

Reid just chuckled at that and suddenly his hand was gone off of Geoffrey’s cock, leaving him _aching_. But the other man pressed a kiss against the base of his neck and purred, “We should do as the lady requests.”

Geoffrey was fairly certain he had never gotten out of the rest of his clothes and his boots as quickly in his fucking life.

As soon as he kicked his shorts off and off to the side, the somewhat chill air of the room _torturous_ on his overly hot feeling skin, Geoffrey looked towards the bed where the other two had gone. They were standing at the edge of it, pressed against each other skin to skin with Elisabeth’s hands against Reid’s chest and his hands on her waist, with their foreheads pressed against each others. Jealousy flared in his chest but it wasn’t jealousy aimed at _either_. It was jealousy that _he_ was not there as well as a sudden sensation that _he_ didn’t belong there in that moment or between them.

Then Elisabeth’s eyes turned towards him and Reid stepped away from her, giving him a full look at the leech for the first time. All lean muscles and sharp lines, a reminder that the doctor had been turned at the end of his service as a medical officer in the field, a position that didn’t allow for slacking. He flicked his eyes at Reid’s face and found the man looked _entranced_ before he growled and stalked towards him with the same predator’s walk that he used when hunting down leeches. Getting in the other man’s face, Geoffrey smirked and rumbled, “See something you like, Reid?”

“Oh yes,” breathed the other man.

“ _Good_ ,” Geoffrey growled before he shoved him back onto the bed. As Reid fell backwards, he followed, climbing literally into the man’s lap and wrapping his fingers around his cock. The leech’s breathing hitched and he let out a desperate whine, his chin tilting back to expose his throat. Leaning down, he nipped with his own fangs at that throat and rumbled, “ _So do I_.”

He worked the other man’s cock for only a moment, moving his hand up and down over it slowly with alternating pressure, before he looked over his shoulder at a gentle touch there. Elisabeth smiled at him and held up a small jar in her hand, her head slightly tilted curiously to the side. Her gaze then shifted towards Reid’s before she leaned in close and whispered in his ear, “We might find this useful.”

She then ran the back of her fingertips across his upper arm and added, “Between the three of us.”

Geoffrey frowned down at the little jar for a moment before realization kicked in. He then looked her up and down before he tilted his head slightly at her as well, murmuring, “You are _full_ of surprises, aren’t you?”

Elisabeth chuckled at that and just smiled. “A lady must always have a few surprises. Imagine how many more you could find in the future.”

He ignored that for the moment because he didn’t want to think of what might be to come. Of how _this_ , all of this, might mean nothing in the morning despite all of the words of the night. He didn’t know if everything would change after tonight for them...and he didn’t know if he would even care to stay.

Instead of focusing on that, Geoffrey smirked and reached out to brush his fingertips across her hip since he wasn’t all that certain of how far he could go with her. “And what did you have in mind?” he asked softly. He arched his eyebrows high when a moment later she climbed up into the bed, her other hand coming down over his and bringing him in direct contact with her hip.

“You _may_ touch, my dear,” Elisabeth stated firmly. She then leaned in, her breasts pressing against his arm, and murmured into his ear, “What I had in mind was to give my love that which he most wants: both of us.”

Geoffrey jerked his head back and around to look at her before turning to look down at Reid, who was still strewn beneath him, now looking gloriously _wrecked_ since he had apparently unconsciously picked the pace back up. He removed his hand from the man’s cock, drawing out a low groan from him, and turned to take the jar from Elisabeth’s hand. Impulsively he slid his other hand up her side, daring much now since she’d literally invited him, until he reached her shoulder. Then he let his hand move to the back of her neck and dragged her in for a kiss.

Unlike Reid, she didn’t fight back or submit. She merely _accepted_ and _gave back_ without feeling like she was taking over _or_ giving in. Elisabeth merely _was_ , like a stone in a brook letting water break over it and never moving an inch, worn down only by the slow crawl of time itself. In the end, before he pulled away, he felt like _he_ was the one submitting.

He let out a low hum as he drew back, brushing his thumb across her neck and growling, “You are quite something.”

“Have I impressed Geoffrey McCullum himself?” she asked with a wry smile. “Will wonders never cease? I believe I almost rendered you speechless as well.”

“Almost.”

Geoffrey then released her, turning away to lean down over Reid to growl into his ear, the other man’s cock brushing against his belly. “ _Reid_ ,” he rumbled darkly and the man’s eyes canted over towards him, curiosity and want in them. “Tell me, _leech_ , do you want both of us? One on either side of you....driving you mad?”

The other man’s breathing hitched and he nodded slowly, one hand sliding up to caress Geoffrey’s thigh while the other reached out towards Elisabeth. “ _Yes_ ,” came the half-whispered reply, needy and wanton and it made something warm settle in Geoffrey’s chest.

“Then let’s get more comfortable on this bed then, hmm?”

Moving off of the other man, Geoffrey tugged him upright, growling in a pleased fashion when Reid leaned into him for a moment. Then all three of them were moving, shifting and repositioning on the bed until they were laying properly on it. As soon as they were settled, Geoffrey opened the little jar that Elisabeth had given him and scooped out enough of the vaseline to coat the fingers of his left hand, managing to seal the top back on one-handed. Leaning forward, he kissed softly at Reid’s shoulder and heard the man gasp, his back arching slightly, as Geoffrey carefully began to ease one of his slippery fingers inside of him. Reid whined in response, turning his head into the pillows as he gasped, “ _Geoffrey. Elisabeth_.”

“We are here, my love,” Elisabeth soothed, pressing herself against him and kissing at his cheek and shoulder. She stroked her fingers through his hair and began to sing something softly under her breath, a song that sounded _old_ , older than him or Reid. The sound of it seemed to soothe Reid a little...and, if Geoffrey was honest, himself a bit too.

He growled as he added another finger, twisting and turning them until he drew a filthy groan out of the man and felt a hand grip his thigh tightly. A hand that was tipped with sharp, bloody claws, digging deeply into his flesh to cause pain and - oddly enough - some pleasure as blood welled up. Geoffrey hissed at the pain before he bent to nip at the back of Reid’s neck, earning a gasp and _finally_ some hissed words.

“ _Please_ ,” Reid panted, _“Please_.”

“ _Patience_ ,” Geoffrey growled back into his ear as he slowly slid in a third finger. Reid tensed up in response and he was suddenly almost certain that the other man was going to come apart before they had even gotten to anything truly fun. Yet then he relaxed, the tenseness leaving his body as his hips jerked reflexively into a particular thrust that Geoffrey did. “Now who’s the impatient one?” he asked in a low murmur, smirking at Elisabeth as he did so.

As Reid hissed out something that sounded vaguely insulting but was mostly unintelligible, she chuckled at the comment. “You will find,” she commented as she leaned in to kiss Reid on the mouth, turning his murmurs into a pleased hum, “that he is more often impatient than one might think.”

“Is that so?” he rumbled out darkly. Geoffrey then bent his head to breathe in the man’s ear, “And what would happen if I drove you to the brink of your patience, leech? What would you do? Tell me, Reid.”

He didn’t expect the sudden blur of motion or to have a clawed hand grasp his chin and drag him down into a sudden savagely snarling kiss. The claws pricked the underside of his jaw but didn’t break skin and he snarled back into the kiss before he deliberately writhed his fingers around, drawing a harsh gasp out of Reid that broke his grip.

Geoffrey then reached for the jar in his hand again, harshly twisting off the cap and smearing more on his fingers before he sealed it again and tossed it off the bed. As he reached for his own cock, hips jerking involuntarily at the sensation of his slicked hand rubbing over the sensitive skin, he met Elisabeth’s eyes as he leaned down to growl in Reid’s ear again.

“That answered my question perfectly,” he purred. He then smirked at her before he gripped Reid’s hip in one hand and his cock in the other before pressing slowly forward into the other man. Despite his work of earlier the fit was still tight and Reid’s claws dug into his own hip again, the man himself muffling a cry by biting down into the bed covers. Geoffrey growled with the pleasure and pressure as he continued inching inside, the way getting easier and easier bit by bit.

When he was finally fully there, Geoffrey leaned his forehead against the back of Reid’s skull and just tried to breathe for a moment. After a few seconds, he moved to rest his chin on the man’s shoulder and was surprised by a gentle hand on his cheek. He glanced up into Elisabeth’s eyes then and huffed out a breath before he tilted his head to nip lightly at Reid’s shoulder. When he managed to earn a groan in response, he growled, “Ready for the next half, leech?”

“ _Yes_ ,” came the response, long and drawn out into another groan.

Geoffrey let out a low sound akin to a purr in response before he wrapped his left arm around the other man. He gave a gentle roll of his hips as he did so, earning a shocked gasp from Reid, before he rolled over onto his back and dragged the other man with him. Taking the other man’s weight made him grunt but he wasn’t anywhere near heavy enough to crush him. Growling deep in his chest, Geoffrey tilted his chin to kiss Reid’s shoulder as he began running his hands across the man’s sides, bringing both up slowly to rake his nails across his belly. Reid gasped, arching back into him, before he tried to roll his hips.

In immediate response, Geoffrey tugged the man against him by gripping his hips and growled in his ear as he glanced towards the lady, “ _Patience_.” He then watched her as she moved across the bed, growling softly as she reached out to run her fingers down Reid’s chest. Elisabeth merely arched an eyebrow imperiously and smirked at him.

“Getting possessive already?” she teased gently. Then Reid gasped her name and she bent to kiss him before she swiftly stood up and stepped over their tangled legs so that she straddled them. She then slowly began to lower herself down, reaching for the other man’s cock to grasp it and hold it steady as she sank down onto it. Elisabeth let out a sharp little inhale as she slowly took it in, her eyes falling shut as her head lolled backwards slightly. Her hands fell to rest on Reid’s stomach as she finally sank down over the last of it, her knees just barely making it to the bed underneath them.

Geoffrey felt his mouth go a little dry at the completed sight. Reid sprawled almost bonelessly atop him, pinned in place by his cock, already looking wrecked, and then Elisabeth atop Reid, like a victor standing above her prizes, her head tipped back in ecstasy. All over, it was a good look.

But it could be _better_.

With a low growl, he reached out to let his left hand fingers slide over Elisabeth’s thigh before he gripped behind her knee. His right he settled across Reid’s stomach and then he rolled his hips as much as he could manage with the weight of both of them, bringing a sharp gasp out of the other man as his head lolled backwards onto Geoffrey’s shoulder. Then he noticed that Elisabeth was looking down at him, one eyebrow arched, before she smirked. She then rolled _her_ hips, grinding down into Reid and making him _whine_ before his own jerked back in reaction. _His movement_ made Geoffrey groan and bury his face against Reid’s shoulder, resisting the sudden urge to just dig his fangs into the other man.

 _That_ started the spark.

Suddenly Elisabeth’s movements were the lead they followed and she set the pace, with Geoffrey ending up being the one to match it. Reid had only lasted a few minutes before most of his movement had ceased, except where he had thrown one arm back to grip Geoffrey’s hair and the other was clutching at Elisabeth’s other thigh as well as holding her in place, claws out and digging into her leg.

Geoffrey, on the other hand, ended up taking the weight of them both as a challenge, and made it his mission to meet Elisabeth thrust for thrust, just barely placing enough space between her movement and his own to not make them come at the same time. They were staggered, one following the other, and he knew they were doing good by how utterly _trashed_ and _ragged_ Reid’s breathing was becoming. His own, of course, wasn’t much better as he panted raggedly into the other man’s shoulder.

It wasn't _perfect_ , of course. His thighs and back burned from the strain and his knees kept knocking into the legs of the other two. But Reid’s limp, almost sated weight collapsed on top of him pleased him and Elisabeth certainly knew what she was doing.

Geoffrey growled as he looked up to meet her eyes and she seemed to read that he wasn't going to last much longer in their position. Suddenly she leaned forward, reaching down to brace one hand on his shoulder while the other caressed Reid’s face. Her hips kept moving but the shift changed the direction of her movement and he shifted his own to compensate. She let out a few ragged breaths before she leaned in fully to kiss Reid. Geoffrey was watching her and at the same time he bit down into the man’s shoulder, blood flooding his mouth, and snapped his hips sharply.

Reid’s entire body shuddered, tensing up, and he came apart with a muffled shout, panting and whining alternatively as they kept moving at a much slower pace to bring him back down. When he finally went limp again, Geoffrey unhooked his teeth from the other man’s shoulder, gently licking the wounds as they healed back up. He cleaned up every inch of blood that had escaped and purred softly as he kissed the spot where he'd bitten down.

Elisabeth then was sitting up, climbing off of them both and settling on the edge of the bed. Geoffrey just lay still for a moment underneath Reid’s weight before he rolled them back over into their sides. The other man went instantly limp, collapsing into that whole body exhaustion that came with a truly _good fuck_ , and he slowly pulled his cock out of him.

As he rolled over and off the bed, looking for his discarded shirt, Geoffrey glanced back towards Elisabeth. She was just sitting there, gently stroking Reid’s hair, a soft smile on her features.

But he knew _she_ hadn't gotten off anymore than he had.

Growling, he swept up his shirt and wiped it across his cock, nearly coming apart himself. Then Geoffrey tossed it aside and stalked over to the other side of the bed, daringly running his fingers down her arm. Her eyes canted towards him and then down, one eyebrow arching, before she asked, “Something you wish to say, my dear?”

“I think you know,” he growled in return with a smirk.

“Perhaps I do,” she replied, her smile sly and coy. “But do entertain me. I so prefer to hear the thoughts of those that share my bed rather than have to guess their intentions myself.”

Geoffrey just huffed out a breath before gruffly stating, “Neither of us got the full benefit out of that like Reid, so I'm offering to...finish up. Besides, we neglected you a bit earlier and I was never fond of letting a woman walk away without both of us being sated.”

“Why, Geoffrey McCullum, you're almost a gentleman.”

“Don’t call me something I'm not, Lady.”

Elisabeth laughed at that as she stated, “And yet here you are, calling me by my title as a gentleman should.” She then leaned forward with a smirk, saying, “You are a cut above many men I have known over the years, my dear. Most would merely seek their own pleasure and care nothing for that of their partners, no matter the gender of said partner.”

Shrugging slightly, he said, “I've never liked leaving favors unreturned.”

“Excellent,” she commented as she stood and stepped into his space, fingertips reaching out to trail down his chest. “Neither have I.” Elisabeth then rose up on her toes and kissed him, prompting Geoffrey to growl and wrap his arms around her, tugging her body against his.

Then he broke away, jerking his chin towards the bed. “What about Reid?”

“What about him?” she replied with a imperiously arched eyebrow. Elisabeth smiled and kissed the edge of his mouth before she moved to his throat, trailing a line of kisses down it that had a hint of the nip of a fang as she continued to speak. “I told him I would be willing to share our bed with you if he and you so wished it. That also means that _I_ get to have a bite of you, hunter. Does it not? We do not speak of _sharing_ lightly.”

Geoffrey swallowed at her words and the implications he didn't want to think of - or the _warmth_ that permeated his entire being at the idea of staying, of _belonging_ somewhere again. Instead he pushed those thoughts aside for things that were easier to think on, like pale skin underneath his hands and a kiss he could drown in.

“Then let's _share_ ,” he growled, lifting her up by the waist. She immediately obliged him by wrapping her legs around him, trapping his overly sensitive cock between their bodies. Geoffrey shifted his grip to her thighs as he turned and made the few steps across the room to press her against the nearest wall. Elisabeth shifted her hips in response as she nipped at his collarbones and his vision nearly whited out at the delicious friction.

Growling, Geoffrey reached down beneath her thigh, pulling back enough that he could free his cock from the pressure. “Careful,” he rumbled, “or we won't get anywhere.”

“Oh, I am certain you have much greater control than that,” she replied with a smirk.

“You want to see my control?” he growled. He then grasped his cock and lined it up beneath her, feeling the tip already sliding into the slick crevice between her thighs. Geoffrey paused for a moment then, frowning, and asked softly, “Half vampires aren't actually real, are they?”

Elisabeth, who had begun to breath a little harder and clutch at his shoulders, broke out into a sudden laugh. “That fool writing of Kendall Stone’s? No, no.” She then kissed him, breathing, “We cannot give life from death, my dear. That's not how the world works.”

Shrugging, Geoffrey smiled apologetically with a flash of his fangs. “Good to know,” he rumbled before he pressed forward, sliding slowly into her to allow her time to adjust if she needed to. She inhaled sharply, hips rolling, and he growled before he leaned into her and thrust upward.

His already sensitive cock wasn't capable of lasting long given what they had already done and Geoffrey could feel himself tipping over the edge after only a few thrusts. Instead of trying to hold out he wriggled one hand between their bodies, fingers seeking out that auburn thatch of hair between her legs. As he delved into it, Elisabeth clung more closely to him, nails digging sharply into his shoulders and back. Her breathing was ragged against his neck and her movements were suddenly needy and desperate.

“Please, Geoffrey,” she whispered in his ear. “Please.”

Geoffrey growled a single note in response before his fingers found what he was seeking, pressing down on the swollen knot at the head of her sex between her thighs. He rolled his fingers over it as he thrust into her, snarling under his breath, “Let go. _Let go_.”

Elisabeth snarled in his ear right before her entire body tensed, that savage noise in his ear turning all too quickly into pleased gasps. He followed after her moments later as her body clenched around his cock, pressing his face into her shoulder and the wall as they rode out the waves of pleasure together. When Geoffrey finally came down from the high, she was still there in his arms with her legs wrapped around him...though now her fingertips were playing with the short hairs at the back of his neck as she laid her head on his shoulder.

Turning his head to look at her out of the corner of his eye, he asked, “Did I satisfy the lady?”

“Mmmm,” she replied, sounding pleased. “Oh, yes, you quite did.”

“Good,” Geoffrey grunted before he managed to straighten up and release her. As she stood in front of him, her legs seeming a little shaky, he muttered, “I should…”

“You should what?” asked Elisabeth quietly. “Go?”

“I…”

Her hands were cupping his cheeks then, forcing him to look down at her, and he would admit that she looked _truly_ earnest as she said gently but firmly, “Our invitation was _never_ for one night only, hunter. Come to bed.”

Frowning down at her, Geoffrey sighed and began, “Elisabeth…”

“ _Come with me_ ,” she insisted before she arched up across what few inches were between them and kissed him. He grunted back into the contact, hands automatically falling back to her sides and then sliding around to her back. Then he jerked away and looked over at the bed, at Reid’s absolutely exhausted form.

There was a flicker of one of the other man’s eyelids and then a soft, barely audible _Stay_ in his head. Followed by a pleading _Stay...please._

“Okay,” he breathed, looking down at Elisabeth. “Okay.”

Lifting a hand, Geoffrey brushed hairs back from her face and softly whispered, “ _I’ll stay_ ,” aloud and across the bond. “ _For now_.”

“Then come,” she whispered, taking his hands and leading him back to the bed.


	5. A Finale in Three Parts

When Geoffrey awoke a few hours later, he felt like an outsider, even lying there naked in their bed with nothing between their skin and his but sheets. He watched them through heavily lidded eyes as Reid trailed his fingertips down Elisabeth’s arm, tracing from shoulder to hand in a torturously slow crawl. Then he caught her fingers within his own and lifted her hand to his mouth, kissing her palm in a way that made her let out a little sigh.

Geoffrey couldn’t see her features since she was between him and the other man but he could see Reid’s. He could see the fondness in the man’s hazel-blue eyes, could see the _love_ and _feeling_ he held for her. It was in every move he made, every careful gesture and motion that he took with her. How could _he_ compare to that?

 _You need not compare_.

His eyes shot open at the intrusion on his thoughts, Jonathan’s voice a soft whisper that cut through every other thought. And he was _looking_ at him as he slowly kissed his way down Elisabeth's arm, eyes unerringly focused on Geoffrey’s own. He was _captured_ by that gaze and his Maker’s mind opened up within his own, allowing him to feel once again that the emotions were not just for Elisabeth.

That they were for _him_ as well.

 _I need not choose who to love, Geoffrey_ , Reid whispered. Then there was a large, warm hand on his chin and he blinked because suddenly Reid was _there_ , leaning over Elisabeth to reach him. The man’s beard brushed up softly across his skin before he finished crossing the distance between them, bringing their lips in line.

The kiss itself was brief but sweet, the other man’s mouth only pressing in gently before it was gone again. Geoffrey let out a low breath after, his eyes flicking between the man and Elisabeth, who had rolled over and was fondly smiling at him with one hand gently stroking small circles over his bare chest.

“I need not choose because I can simply have you _both_ ,” Reid breathed then and Geoffrey knew without a doubt that he was _fucked_ for the rest of his life.

* * *

To Jonathan it felt like it had been just a dream.

A wild and glorious fever dream, perhaps, but a dream in total.

It had been a pleasant thing over the years to dream of Geoffrey showing up on their doorstep but also _terrifying_ . Terrifying because for all of the attraction Jonathan had felt for the man, he knew that all Geoffrey had felt was anger. Especially after he’d turned him because the other man hadn’t _understood_ why he had done it. He had not let him _explain._..and perhaps never would.

To dream of him _actually_ showing up?

To dream of him _actually_ taking their offer?

To dream of coming to completion _between them_ , Geoffrey beneath him and Elisabeth above, both driving him mad?

And then to lean across her and _kiss him_ , to try and drive away the worries in the man’s eyes and that single, solitary thought he had picked up, the question of how could Geoffrey compare to Elisabeth?

It was madness.

Absolute madness.

Jonathan sighed out heavily into the pillows he was resting his head on, wishing it was more than that. That the all-too pleasant dream of his Progeny showing up on their doorstep, kissing him on the couch, and then not only _accepting_ their offer but _actively participating_ had really been real. Yet it wasn’t. It couldn’t be.

He couldn’t let himself _hope_ that much.

Sitting up slowly, he reached out to cup Elisabeth’s face in his hand before leaning in to kiss her. Then he froze because there was _someone else_ on the other side of her. The large, heavy looking form of a man who had one arm thrown over his lover’s waist, his face hidden beyond her shoulder. Jonathan held his breath, trembling slightly, as he sat up higher to look over.

It couldn’t be…

_It hadn’t been a dream?_

Cautiously he reached out, fingers trembling, but before he quite touched the other man, the arm around Elisabeth’s waist snapped up and grabbed his wrist in a tight grip. Geoffrey’s eyes snapped open and he sat up on his elbow, lips drawn back from his fangs in a snarl. Then the other man stilled and growled, “Reid.”

“Geoffrey,” Jonathan breathed in response. He then paused, licking his lips, before adding, “I thought...I thought that I had perhaps dreamed this.”

The hand gripping his wrist went slack at that and the other man was sitting up, brows furrowed as he frowned. Then Geoffrey smirked and asked, “You dream about me often, Reid?”

Chuckling dryly, Jonathan replied, “Perhaps more often than I should have.” He then looked down as where the other man still loosely held his wrist before glancing back up at his blue eyes. “I…”

“Reid?”

“I never _meant_ to cause you pain.”

Geoffrey sat up fully then and his grip suddenly shifted to clasping their hands together, fingers intertwined. “Reid,” he said gruffly.

Shaking, Jonathan held up his other hand and breathed, “Let...let me finish. Please.” When the other man fell silent, he drew in a heavy breath and then looked at him directly in the eye. He could not do anything less with what he was going to say.

“I felt an attraction to you from that first moment in the hospital. It was like you were staring into my soul, looking for all my darkest secrets in that moment. After all, Geoffrey….you were - and still are - quite a handsome man.”

“Shut up,” Geoffrey grumbled but the tone was more fond than gruff and there was a slight flush to his cheeks.

Holding back a smile, Jonathan continued, “That attraction never wavered. Not once. But...in our fight....you wounded me. A deep enough wound that would have killed me as just a man and I….I am ashamed to say that I panicked.” His smile was gone now as he continued in a rush, “I lost control in my fear and gave in to the bloodlust, letting it carry me away. And when it was all over, I was filled with horror when you suddenly collapsed and I _looked_ and could see you dying before my eyes.”

“Priwen would have risen up and destroyed us all,” he went on in a whisper, “if you had died at my hand. Not to mention that despite your own views at the time, we were on the same side. And I…”

Jonathan paused as he closed his eyes for a moment and gripped the other man’s hand tightly as he gasped, “I couldn’t let you die. Not like that. Not at my hand. I could not put words to what I felt then for you but you were _important_ to me. And I was so weak in our fight, giving up my control like that. Yet...I could live with hating myself for my weakness and with you hating me if it meant you survived.”

“You were a love struck fool, Reid,” Geoffrey murmured softly, prompting Jonathan to snap his eyes open. Then the other man growled and tugged his hand free, shifting his position so he was crawling across the bed. Jonathan’s breath hitched and he leaned back onto his arms as Geoffrey leaned in and kissed him softly. “And I _forgave you_ , fool. Leave it.”

“Geoffrey…”

A rough, calloused hand gripped his chin briefly and Jonathan inhaled sharply as the other man growled, “ _Look_ , Reid. I may have somehow hid from you all these years but I...I’m not hiding now. _Look._ ”

He did as asked and what he felt wasn’t the empty nothingness of all the years before. It wasn’t entirely open but when he reached across the bond there actually was something _there_. The emotion wasn’t love or anything so strong but it was _affection_ \- real, honest _affection_ \- and he lifted a hand to touch Geoffrey’s cheek as he felt a broad smile stretch across his face.

“There you are,” he whispered. “ _There you are._ ”

“No promises it stays like that,” the other man grumbled. Then Geoffrey turned his face into Jonathan’s hand, stubble scratching at his palm, and then growled, “I’m really here, Reid.”

There was no denying that now, not with the warm breath against his hand and his presence rattling through his head. Jonathan nodded and replied, “You are.” He then glanced towards Elisabeth, still soundly sleeping with her red hair spilling across the pillows, before he turned and dragged Geoffrey’s face towards him to kiss him roughly. There was a harsh grunt from the other man before he growled and kissed back, crawling forward and pressing Jonathan down onto the bed.

“What do you want, Reid?” he growled into his ear.

Smiling, Jonathan ran his hands along the other man’s sides before digging his nails into his back and snarling right back, “ _You_.”

When Geoffrey just _grinned_ wolfishly back in return, he knew he was well and truly lost.

* * *

Elisabeth woke to a low rumbling growl, a gasped exhale of what might be a name, and the steadily increasing sound of flesh slapping flesh. She frowned and then, as the bed shifted almost violently, opened her eyes to look at the space next to it.

Jonathan was sprawled on his stomach beside her with his face turned towards her, though his eyes were currently shut. His hair, normally so neat and well-kept, was wildly askew from the events of the night before, the strands falling carelessly across his face. He whined abruptly in a tone she knew _intimately_ after all their years together and then his eyes snapped open, though they obviously were not seeing clearly. The pupils were dilated massively, only showing a fraction of his natural hazel inside the thing ring of blue at the outer edge of his iris.

On either side of his face his hands were pinned down against the bed, his wrists clutched in broad, sword-scarred hands. Elisabeth let her eyes follow their path, tracing over the muscled arms and broad shoulders that she had become well acquainted with herself last night, across a body flush with a fighter’s muscle hidden beneath a thin layer of fat, and then down to where Geoffrey’s hips snapped in a solid rhythm against Jonathan’s. She then shifted her gaze to the former hunter’s face and found his fangs bared in a snarl, his blue eyes closed to slits in pleasure.

Sitting up, Elisabeth leaned back against the headboard of the bed, not particularly inclined to stop them nor to join in. She was still quite sated from the previous night, still pleased enough to have had both of them to not interrupt this. Not only that but was she all too aware of how much her lover had long been enamored with the hunter.

Or would it be _lovers_ , now that they had become three?

She made a little scoffing noise in her throat for it was probably far too early to confirm the hunter would stay, moving to slide from the bed and leave them to their time together. As her feet touched the floor, she heard Jonathan gasp, “Elis-a-beth,” her name coming out in three worried exhales time with each movement of their bodies together. Though his eyes were still dilated, they were _focused_ now, and she clearly read the worry in them. Worry for her and her opinions of this arrangement? For the two of them together and leaving her alone to herself?

Such _foolish men_ she had found herself with.

Shaking her head, Elisabeth slid back onto the bed and leaned over, winding her arm underneath Geoffrey’s to caress Jonathan’s face. The hunter’s eyes met hers as well and, though his pace didn’t slow, there was some concern and a little fear in those blue eyes. Had she not said last night that the intent of this arrangement was to share each other? Had he forgotten so soon? She smiled at both of them then leaned down, tilting Jonathan’s head up at enough of an angle that she could kiss him. He hummed into her mouth in a pleased noise as he kissed back then smiled that soft smile of his when she pulled away. They had known each other long enough for him to know that this is her giving her blessing.

Then she rose and turned to the hunter, slowly lifting a hand to touch his face. He accepted it but the fear was stronger in his gaze, as if he expected her to retract the offer she and Jonathan had made. The very one she had confirmed again last night when he had made his offer to her. Geoffrey didn’t flinch but his pace stuttered for a moment when Elisabeth leaned forward to kiss him as well. He did not respond as Jonathan had, his mouth unmoving under hers except for a soft gasp of surprise, and thus she did not linger long. They have so much time to let him adapt to both of them if he stayed, there was no rush in this.

When she pulled away, she met his eyes and softly stated, “He is yours as much as he is mine. As I told you last night, we do not speak of _sharing_ lightly.” The fear _broke_ in those blue eyes at those words and was replaced by surprise and wonder...and perhaps a little bit of gratefulness?

She was all too certain that Geoffrey’s most silent fear, the one he would never voice aloud, was spending the coming centuries of his life alone. Perhaps he _would_ stay after all.

Smiling, Elisabeth moved her hand from his face to touch his shoulder with one hand as she brushed the fingertips of the other across Jonathan’s back. “Have fun, my dears. Come find me when you are done.” With that she slipped from the room, taking only a dressing gown with her, a smile on her face as she heard Jonathan gasp the hunter’s name and Geoffrey growl his in return.

She had had her doubts at this arrangement - mostly as to whether the hunter would accept it - but she seemed so far to have been proven wrong. That made her look forward to what other surprises might come.

Elisabeth learned one such surprise an hour later when they finally emerged from the bedroom to find her. They were both _pleased_ by her blessing it seemed as they stalked downstairs, both of them starkly naked except for the still healing evidence of a few bite marks as they came to sit on either side of her on the couch. Jonathan slipped her tea cup from her hands as Geoffrey pressed himself against her side, nipping at her shoulder through her robe as one of his hands slide underneath it to weave circular motions with his fingers across her belly. Then Jonathan was pressed close to her other side, his lips against her cheek and his deft fingers not even hesitating to delve between her thighs.

She let out a soft exhale as she parted her legs for him, tilting her head back against the back of the couch and smiling as Geoffrey plucked at the tie of her robe. As soon as it fell open, they were both drawing it back with eager hands, and she had the gloriously disorienting sensation of a calloused hand cupping one breast and rolling its thumb across the nipple as the other felt the brush of a beard before the nipple was enclosed in a warm mouth. Elisabeth arched her back as Geoffrey leaned in to kiss her throat, growling against it as his hand continued to work at her breast. Then she slipped her arms from between the couch and them, winding her fingers into their hair and gripping solidly.

Geoffrey growled at the contact and lifted his head to kiss her roughly, his fangs nipping at her  mouth but never quite breaking skin. Then Jonathan hummed and lightly bit at her nipple as he crooked his fingers inside of her. Elisabeth exhaled sharply in response, her hips thrusting into Jonathan’s hand as she tugged sharply at his hair.

She felt him smile as he drew back from her, blowing air across her now sensitive nipple before he kissed the skin next to it and asked, “Are we not pleasing you, my love?”

Breathing in sharply, Elisabeth replied, “I am afraid I am... _ah_...not quite impressed yet with the skills of your mouths.”

“Is that so, Lady?” Geoffrey growled into her throat, nuzzling his nose into the hollows there. He then moved downward, pressing a kiss to her collarbone, before asking, “What must we do to _impress_ then?”

“Telling you will never help you learn,” she answered with a smirk, lifting her head enough to look down at him. The hunter _grinned_ up at her, looking absolutely _feral_ with his pupils a mere pinprick in the center of his iris’ and his hair wildly askew. Jonathan looked quite the same, his smile that sly, pleased one that she’d finally coaxed out of him once she’d broken past that gentlemanly nature of his in private. His smile only became wider as he slowly moved down into the floor, his fingertips trailing along her side and thigh as he seated himself between her spread legs.

And his fingers, those _lovely deft fingers_ , never ceased their movements.

“I believe,” he growled as he leaned forward to kiss just above the thatch of auburn hair between her thighs, her belly trembling in response, “that the lady wishes for something in particular, Geoffrey.”

“Mmm, already ahead of you, Reid,” Geoffrey rumbled darkly before he bent his head and took the nipple he had been teasing with his thumb into his mouth. His hand then cupped her other breast, his thumb gently curling around the nipple of that one to drive her further towards her own precipice.

“So impatient,” Jonathan muttered fondly. He then grinned at her and Elisabeth inhaled sharply as he slid one hand underneath her knee, lifting it up to rest on his shoulder. She lifted the other up herself, locking her ankles behind his back as he dragged her slightly forward on the couch. Then he leaned in and she let her head fall back onto the back of the couch again, her free hand drifting back into his hair as he set that skilled tongue of his to work.

“ _Jonathan_ ,” she gasped, used her legs to thrust her hips into his face as he sealed his mouth over the swollen knot at the crux of her thighs and sucked, rolling it back and forth with his tongue as he did so. Then she felt his hands grip her hips, pinning her in place, and Geoffrey’s other arm wrapped around her waist, also holding her down. Elisabeth held back most of a ragged moan as the hunter shifted his attention over to her other breast...but some of it escaped and made both of them _growl_ with pleasure. The vibrations of which set off a cascade of sensations through her body, each carried a little bit further by the movement of their mouths.

Her breathing became heavier all too quickly, and she tried to roll her hips to chase the delicious sensations that Jonathan was bringing forth, but his hands still held her firm. She was _trapped_ , utterly bound within their grasp until they relented and released her...or until she found the release that they were chasing.

“ _Please_ ,” she gasped, feeling the ache for release rising within her, that tightening and almost burning sensation at the base of her belly that heralded completion. Elisabeth clenched her fists in their hair and gasped the word again and again, pleading with them desperately to release her so she could chase the desperate need to friction within her.

Jonathan let out a low chuckle of a growl and suddenly he released the pressure on her hips, merely holding onto her instead as she instantly bucked into his mouth. He hummed in response, the vibrations driving her nearly to the brink, as Geoffrey abruptly pinched one nipple while sucking hard at the other than his mouth was on, his tongue pressed down against the sharp peak.

Elisabeth hitched a desperate, needy breath, feeling the ache coil tighter and tighter. Then deft fingers slipped between her slick thighs again and Jonathan flattened his tongue against the bud within her sex before flicking the tip sharply against it. At the same time, Geoffrey rose to claim her mouth again and for some reason _that_ \- one of them kissing her mouth and the other kissing between her thighs - finally drove her over the edge.

She arched her back, the motion of her hips stuttering as she gasped, tearing her mouth away from Geoffrey’s as the orgasm rippled through her. Elisabeth closed her eyes as she basked in it, still feeling Jonathan between her thighs though now his attention was more gentle, the strokes of his fingers inside of her dragging out the sensation and winding her back down. And Geoffrey turned his attention to her throat again, a self-satisfied purr rumbling out of him as he kissed and nipped softly at the arch of her neck.

Somehow she lost track of time in the sensations and when she came back to herself, she found her robe gently tucked back into place around her. And the two of them were pressed in close on either side of her, their arms wrapped around her, cheeks resting against the top of his head.

As Elisabeth let out a little contented sigh, Jonathan chuckled softly and moved, dipping his head to press a soft kiss against her temple. “Did we please you, my love?” his asked softly, his voice the deep, dark rumble it became at his most content.

“Oh, yes,” she breathed, lifting her hands to cup both of their faces. She turned and tilted her head up to kiss Jonathan on the mouth then switched to the other side to do the same to Geoffrey. The hunter did not reciprocate the kiss as strongly as her lover of so many years had but he _did_ press back and let out a warm chuckle. Elisabeth then leaned back, a smile on her face as she looked up at both of them, her fingers stroking across their faces softly as she said, “I am _very_ pleased.”

 _Yes_ , she thought as the two men let out almost identical pleased growls and curled in around her, _yes, this arrangement of theirs might work out quite well indeed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only the end for now.
> 
> I plan to do more with these three in this scenario, much more.


End file.
